Gordonsville Historic District
19th- and early 20th-century buildings

Although most of the brick buildings forming the commercial district were built after the fires of 1916 and 1920, Gordonsville’s history—and most of its buildings—are much older. The town was named for Nathaniel Gordon, a late 18th-century innkeeper here, whose tavern was frequented by such prominent statesmen as Thomas Jefferson and the Major General Marquis de Lafayette. The hamlet grew into a thriving transportation center with the arrival in the 1840s and early 1850s of two railroads and two major turnpikes.

During the Civil War, Gordonsville was a crucial transportation and supply hub for Robert E. Lee’s Confederate Army of Northern Virginia.  For several days in 1862, Stonewall Jackson had his headquarters at the old Gordon Tavern. Tens of thousands of Civil War soldiers were treated for wounds and illnesses at the Gordonsville Receiving Hospital in the Exchange Hotel and in churches and private homes.

After a new north-south railroad line bypassed Gordonsville in the early 1880s, the town lost its economic connections to population centers. Today, the historic district’s restaurants, shops and the Exchange Hotel attract visitors from throughout the region.